The Blade Runner
by 2-2Distracted
Summary: Adopted from Foxykyuu15: "What would you do if you woke up somewhere with no memories? If you were forced into a completely foreign environment where everyone depends on each other for the sole reason of surviving? Would you give up, or would you keep fighting?" Follow the tale of a group of boys, trapped in maze, and how they'll use what they don't know to get out of it alive.


A/N: Hey everyone! New story out and this one is based on the movie that's based on the book. So keep it cool and remember: W.I.C.K.E.D is good.

P.S: I would like to thank **Foxykyuu15** for allowing me to adopt this story. I am going to change a few things though. I hope that isn't too much of an inconvenience for anyone. Especially the original author of the fic, who did an awesome job so far with it.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto franchise or the Maze Runner trilogy, as they are a product of Masashi Kishimoto and James Dashner respectively.

* * *

The Blade Runner

* * *

He began his new life kneeling, surrounded by cold darkness and stale, dusty air.

Rusty Metal ground against even rustier metal; a lurching shudder shook the floor beneath him. He stood up at the sudden movement and shuffled backward on his and feet, drops of sweat beading on his forehead despite the cool air.

His back struck a hard metal wall; he slid along it until he hit the corner of the room. Sinking to the floor, he pulled his legs up tight against his body, hoping his ears would soon adjust to the noise, since his eyes were clearly no good.

With a jolt, the room jerked upward like an old lift in a mine shaft.

Harsh sounds of chains and pulleys, echoed through the room, bouncing off the walls. The lightless elevator swayed back and forth as it ascended, turning the boy's stomach sour. A smell like burnt oil invaded his senses, making him feel worse. He wanted to see, but no light came to allow it; he could only sit there, alone, waiting.

'My name is Naruto', he thought.

But... that was the only thing he could remember about his life. He didn't understand how this could be possible. His mind functioned without flaw, trying to calculate his surroundings and predicament. Knowledge flooded his thoughts, facts and images, memories and details of the world and how it works.

He pictured snow on trees, running down a leaf-strewn road, eating ramen, the moon casting a pale glow on a grassy meadow, swimming in a lake, a busy village with dozens of people bustling about their business.

And yet he had no idea where he came from, or how he'd gotten inside where he is now, or who his parents were. He didn't even know, or at least remember, his last name. Images of people flashed across his mind, but there was no recognition, their faces just fading to black. He couldn't think of one person he knew, or recall anything he last said.

The room continued its ascent, still pitch black; Naruto grew accustomed to the ceaseless rattling of the chains that pulled him upward, since they were the only things he could hear. A long time passed and minutes began stretching into hours, although it was impossible to know for sure because every second seemed an eternity. But now that he thought about it he realized he now he'd been moving for roughly thirty minutes

Strangely enough, he felt his anxiety slowly cascade away, replaced by curiosity. He now wanted to know where he was and what was happening, and of course, what was going to happen next. With a rather loud groan, the rising room halted; the sudden change shifted Naruto from his huddled position and threw him across the metallic floor. He immediately scrambled to his feet, despite the pain, feeling the room sway less and less until it finally stilled. As if nothing was ever there to begin with, everything was silent.

A couple of minutes passed. He looked in every direction but saw only darkness; he felt along the walls again, trying to search for a way out. But there was nothing, only the cool metal surrounding him.

He groaned slightly, frustration clear in his unclear voice. His echo picked in the air, like a haunted moan. It vanished, and silence returned. He screamed, called for help, and even pounded on the walls with his fists, and yet, nothing.

Naruto backed into the corner once again, folded his arms and began to shiver, the fear returning. He felt a cold quiver in his stomach, as if there was something inside, wanting to escape from his body.

"Someone… help… me..." he murmured; each word lower in pitch and tone.

A loud clank ringed in his, the noise coming above him. He inhaled a startled breath and he looked up. A straight line of light appeared across the ceiling of the room, and Naruto watched as it widened. A heavy grating sound revealed double sliding doors being forced open. After so long of being unable to see, the light stabbed his eyes; he looked away and covered his face with a hand.

He heard noises above—voices—and fear squeezed his chest.

"Look at that baka."

"How old do you think he is?"

"Looks like crap in a T-shirt."

"You're crap, butt-face."

"Yare yare, it smells like piss down there!"

"Hope you enjoyed the one-way trip, Genin."

"...Because there's no ticket back, bro."

Naruto was hit with confusion and blistered with panic. The voices were strange, they all ended with an echo; some of the words were completely out of his vocabulary—others sounded familiar. He willed his now blue eyes to adjust, squinting toward the light and the voices. At first he could only see shifting shadows, but they soon turned into the shapes of bodies, with some bending over the hole in the ceiling, looking down at him.

And then, as if the lens of a camera had sharpened its focus, the appearances cleared. They were all boys—some were young, and some were older. Naruto didn't really know what was to be expected, but seeing those faces puzzled him. 'They're just teenagers' he thought. Some of his fear melted away, but not enough to calm him down completely.

A rope lowered from above, the end of it tied into a big loop. Naruto hesitated at first, but then stepped into it with his left foot as he clutched the rope and was yanked toward the sky. Lots of hands reached down, grabbing him by his clothes, pulling him up. The world seemed to spin, an almost swirling mist of faces, colour and light.

A storm of emotions hit his heart, twisting and pulling; he wanted to scream, fight, and even run. The voices grew silent, but someone spoke as they yanked him over the sharp edge of the dark box.

"Nice to meet ya, baka," the boy said. "Welcome to the Trigram."

The helping hands finally stopped swarming around him as Naruto stood up straight and brushed the dust from his shirt and pants. Still shaken by the glare of the light, he staggered a bit. He was consumed with curiosity but still felt too ill to look closely at his surroundings. His new companions whispered amongst themselves as he swivelled his head around, trying to take it all in.

As he rotated in a slow circle, the other kids snickered and stared; some reached out and grabbed locks of his blonde hair. There had to be at least sixty of them, their clothes smudged and sweaty as if they'd been hard at work, all shapes and sizes and races, their hair of varying lengths. Naruto immediately felt woozy, his eyes flickering between the boys and this bizarre place he was stuck in.

They stood in a vast courtyard several times the size of a football field, surrounded by four enormous walls made of gray stone and covered in spots with thick ivy. The walls had to be hundreds of feet high and formed a perfect square around them, each side split in the exact middle by an opening as tall as the walls themselves that, from what Naruto could see, led to passages and long corridors beyond.

"Check out this Genin," a scratchy voice said; Naruto couldn't see who it came from. "gonna break his neck checking out his new den." Several boys laughed.

"Shut your trap, Kiba," a deeper voice responded.

Naruto focused back in on the dozens of strangers around him. He knew he must look out of it—he felt like he'd been hit with something. A tall-fat kid with brown spiky and a fat round jaw chewed something in front of him, his face devoid of expression. A short, scrawny boy fidgeted back and forth on his feet, looking up at Naruto with wide eyes.

A lean, no muscled Asian kid folded had his hands in his pockets as he studied Naruto, his tight shirtsleeves rolled up to show off his biceps. The boy's eyes were red with three black tomoe-like symbols equally spaced around them. The skinny boy frowned—the same one who'd welcomed him whilst countless others just stared.

"Where am I?" Naruto asked, surprised at hearing his voice for the first time. It didn't sound quite right—higher than he would've imagined.

"Nowhere you want to be." This came from the skinny-skinned boy. "Just try to keep yourself calm."

"Which class is he gonna get?" someone shouted from the back of the crowd.

"I told you didn't I?" a shrill voice responded. "He's crap; no doubt he'll be a Chunin." The kid giggled to himself.

Naruto once again felt nothing but confusion at hearing so many phrases he couldn't understand. Baka. Chunin. Genin. They popped out of the boys' mouths so naturally it seemed odd for him not to understand. It was as if his memory loss had stolen a chunk of his language—it was disorienting.

Different emotions battled for dominance in his mind and heart. Confusion. Curiosity. Anger. Fear. But laced through it all was a strange and ironic feeling of hope, like the he had just turned over new leaf. He wanted to run and hide from these people.

"I bet he'll be working on manure duty. He's doing a pretty good job at crapping his pants right now!" the voice continued,

"I said shut it!" the skinny boy yelled. "Keep it up with the stupid jokes and I'll cut your next break in half!"

'He's probably their leader', Naruto realized. Hating how everyone gawked at him, he concentrated on studying the place the boy had called the Trigram

The floor of the courtyard looked like it was made of huge stone blocks, many of them cracked and filled with long grasses and weeds. It looked as though it was cut into shape of shuriken. An odd, dilapidated wooden building near one of the corners of the square contrasted greatly with the gray stone. A few trees surrounded it, their roots like gnarled hands digging into the rock floor for food. Another corner of the compound held gardens—from where he was standing Naruto recognized corn, tomato plants, fruit trees.

Across the courtyard from there stood wooden pens holding sheep and pigs and cows. A large grove of trees filled the final corner; the closest ones looked crippled and close to dying. The sky overhead was cloudless and blue, but Naruto could see no sign of the sun despite the brightness of the day. The creeping shadows of the walls didn't reveal the time or direction—it could be early morning or late afternoon. As he breathed in deeply, trying to settle his nerves, a mixture of smells bombarded him. Somehow he knew that these were the smells of a farm.

Naruto looked back at his inmates, feeling awkward but desperate to ask questions. He scanned their faces, taking in each expression, judging them. A red coloured symbol was painted on the large wall in front of him, written in characters he couldn't recognize.

Suddenly the leader of the group—perhaps he was seventeen—took a step forward. He wore normal clothes: red T-shirt, black camouflaged pants, ninja boots, and a digital watch. For some reason the clothing here surprised Naruto; it seemed like everyone should be wearing something more menacing—like prison garb. The skinny boy had hair in the shape of a pineapple, his face clean shaven and had an earring on his left ear. But other than the lazy look, there was nothing scary about him at all.

"It's a long story, baka," the boy said. "Don't worry too much for now. I'll take you on the Tour tomorrow. Till then … try not to get excited." He held a hand out. "The name's Shikamaru." He waited, clearly wanting to shake hands.

Naruto refused. Instincts took over his actions and without saying anything he turned away from Shikamaru and walked to a nearby tree, where he plopped down to sit with his back against the rough bark.

Panic was beginning to swell inside him once again. But he took a deep breath and forced himself to try to accept the situation. 'Just go with it,' he thought. 'you won't figure out anything if you give in to fear.'

"Then tell me," Naruto called out, struggling to keep his voice even. "Tell me the long story."

Shikamaru glanced at the friends closest to him, scratching the back of his head, and Naruto studied the crowd again. His original estimate had been close—there were probably fifty to sixty of them, ranging from boys in their mid-teens to young adults like Shikamaru, who seemed to be one of the oldest. At that moment, Naruto realized with a sickening lurch that he had no idea how old he was. His heart sank at the thought—he was so lost he didn't even know his own age.

"Seriously," he said, giving up on the show of courage. "Where am I?"

Shikamaru walked over to him and sat down cross-legged; the crowd of boys followed and packed in behind. Heads popped up here and there, kids leaning in every direction to get a better look.

"If you're not scared," Shikamaru said, "then you're not human. Act any different and I'd throw you off the Wall because it'd mean you're a psycho."

"The Wall?" Naruto asked, blood draining from his face, looking at his surroundings

"How Troublesome," Shikamaru said, rubbing his eyes. "There isn't any easier way to start these conversations, you know? We don't kill bakas like you, I promise. Just try and avoid being killed or something. Survive ya know?" He paused, and Naruto realized his face must've whitened even more when he heard that last part.

"Damn it man," Shikamaru said, then ran his hands over his pineapple shaped hair as he let out a long sigh. "I'm not good at this, it's just too troublesome for me— you're the first Genin since Lee was killed." Naruto's eyes widened and another boy stepped up and playfully slapped Shikamaru across the head.

"Wait for the Tour, Shikamaru," he said, the way he spoke had strange style to it. "The kid's gonna go nuts, even when nothing's been heard of yet." He bent down and extended his hand toward Naruto.

"Name's Neji, Genin, and we'd all appreciate if you'd forgive our lazy-ass new leader, here."

Naruto reached out and shook the boy's hand—he seemed a lot nicer than Shikamaru. Neji was taller than Shikamaru too, but looked to be a year or so younger. His hair was jet-black, long and tied into a ponytail and his hands were rough.

"Whatever, pale-face," Shikamaru grunted, pulling Neji down to sit next to him. "At least he can see that I have pupils in my eyes." There were a few scattered laughs, and then everyone gathered behind Shikamaru and Neji, packing in even tighter, waiting to hear what they said.

Shikamaru spread his arms out, palms up. "This place is called the Trigram. It's where we live, where we eat, where we sleep—we call ourselves Shinobi. That's all you—"

"Who sent me here?" Naruto demanded, fear finally giving way to anger. "How'd—"

Shikamaru's hands formed into a sign as he got on one knee before he could finish. Suddenly Naruto felt like he couldn't move at all. "Shut up, baka, just shut up!" Shikamaru put force into his hand sign, now standing up. Somehow this made Naruto do the same.

Naruto was utterly confused and scared at why he couldn't move, grunting ever so slightly, but not one muscle would budge.

"Don't interrupt me, Genin." Shikamaru shot. "If we just told you everything, you'd die before learning to live, right after you'd crap your pants. Tokubetsu would drag you off, and you'd be of no use to us if that happened, huh?"

"What the hell are you even talking about?" Naruto asked slowly, shocked at how steady his voice sounded.

Neji reached out and grabbed Shikamaru by the shoulders. "Shikamaru, lay off him for now. You're clearly making it worse than better."

Shikamaru let go of his hand sign, releasing Naruto, and stepped back. "I don't have time to be nice, Genin. Your old life's over, and your new one's just begun. Learn the rules quick, listen, and don't talk. Got it?" Naruto looked over at Neji, hoping for help. Everything inside him churned and hurt; his irises went from sky blue to blood for a second.

Neji nodded. "Genin, you get him, right?" He nodded again.

Naruto sighed, really wanting to kick somebody, but simply said, "Yeah."

"Hai," Shikamaru said. "Today is the First Day for you, baka. Almost night-time, and the ANBU will be back soon. The Box came late today, so I don't have time for the Tour. It'll start tomorrow morning, right after dawn."

He turned toward Neji. "Get him a bed and get him to sleep."

"Hai," Neji said with a bow.

Shikamaru's eyes returned to Naruto, narrowing. "A few days and you'll be happy, baka. You'll be happy and helping out. None of us knew anything on our First Day, you neither. But your new life starts tomorrow."

Shikamaru turned and pushed his way through the crowd, then headed for the slanted wooden building in the corner. Most of the kids wandered away then, each one giving Naruto a lingering look before they walked off.

Naruto folded his arms, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. Emptiness had now ate away at his insides, quickly replaced by a sadness that hurt his heart. It was all too much—where was he? What was this place? Was it some kind of prison? If so, why had he been sent here, and for how long? The language was odd, and none of the boys seemed to care whether he lived or died. His iris threatened again to change again, but they refused to alter completely.

"What did I do?" he whispered, not really meaning for anyone to hear him. "What did I do—why'd they send me here?"

Neji clapped him on the shoulder. "Genin, what you're feeling is what we've all felt. We've all had our own First Day when we come out of that box. Things seem bad right now, and they'll get much worse for you soon, that's the truth. But sooner than later, you'll be living. I can tell you don't believe this is your fate."

"Is this a prison?" Naruto asked; he dug in the darkness of his thoughts, trying to find a crack to his past.

"So far you've asked four questions, haven't you?" Neji replied. "I don't the right answers for you, not yet, anyway."

Naruto said nothing, his head sunk, his blue eyes staring at the cracked, rocky ground. A line of small leafed weeds ran along the edge of one of the stone blocks, tiny yellow flowers peeping through as if searching for the sun, long disappeared behind the enormous walls of the Trigram.

"Konohamaru should be a good fine for you," Neji said. "Hyper little baka, but a nice kid when all is said and done. Stay here, I'll be back."

Neji had barely finished his sentence when a sudden, piercing scream ripped through the air. High and shrill, the barely human shriek echoed across the stone courtyard; every kid in sight turned to look toward the source. Naruto felt his blood turn to icy slush as he realized that the horrible sound came from the wooden building.

Even Neji had jumped as if startled, veins around his eyes growing in concern.

"For crying out loud," he said. "Can't the Medical-Nin handle that boy for ten minutes without needing assistance?" He shook his head and lightly kicked Naruto on the foot. "Find Konohamaru; tell him he's in charge of your sleeping arrangements." And then he turned and headed in the direction of the building, running.

Naruto slid down the rough face of the tree until he sat on the ground again; he shrank back against the bark and closed his eyes, wishing he could wake up from this strange, crazy dream.

* * *

The Blade Runner

* * *

A/N: And that's that! First chapter up, and if you read the books, you'll notice a thing or two, or three, or more...

P.S: I once again want to thank **Foxykyuu15** for allowing me to adopt this story. It means a lot to fellow Naruto fan when this happens, especially to novice author like me. ^-^

Anyway, read & review!


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